Olympics: The Biggest Marketing Platform

Posted in Marketing & Strategy Articles, Total Reads: 3665
, Published on 23 August 2012

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Olympics is the biggest sporting event of the world with over 200 countries participating in almost 300 events within a period of two weeks. Though, Olympics is a sporting event where participants from different countries are competing against each other, there is another underlying competition going on amongst companies, that is marketing themselves at a global level.

With a worldwide television audience and the attendance at the games is expected to touch half a million spectators, companies are doing their best to catch as many eyeballs as they can.

Corporate sponsorship provides more than 40% of the financing needs of the Olympics. Some of the worldwide partners that are authorized to use exclusive marketing rights of the Olympics are Acer, Coca-Cola, General Electrics Company, Dow, McDonalds, Omega, Proctor & Gamble, Samsung and Visa.

Let us see one by one how some of the multinational companies have used Olympics as a marketing platform.

Proctor & Gamble’s ‘Thank You Mom’ Campaign:

P&G launched its ‘Thank You Mom’ Campaign which is the biggest campaign in P&G’s nearly 175 years history. This will run throughout the Olympics. The universal resonance of the campaign was summed up by Marc Pritchard, P&G Global Marketing and Brand Building Officer. “At P&G, we know that getting to the Olympic Games begins at childhood and that on each of these athletes’ journey to London 2012, there was one person cheering for them far more louder than anyone... their moms. P&G is the business of helping moms, not just moms at Olympics, all moms, all around the world. So we are using our voice at the Olympic Games to thank moms everywhere.”

Coca-Cola’s ‘Move to the Beat’ Campaign:

Coca-Cola launched its marketing campaign ‘Move to the Beat’ for London Olympics 2012. The campaign focuses on uniting the youth across the globe. The Olympic campaign is in keeping with the Coke’s efforts to reach young people with global music efforts. According to the company, ‘Move to the Beat’ is the biggest musical collaboration in history where anyone can create a beat and add it to the ‘Move to the Beat’ Campaign.

McDonalds at the Olympics:

McDonald’s connection with the Olympics goes back almost 40 years. In addition to being a worldwide partner, it is also the official restaurant of the Olympics. The company will serve not only the spectators but also the coaches and athletes.

Bottom line:

There are other companies which are also reaping benefits out of the Olympics such as Visa, which is the official payment services provider. General Electrics company which made $100 million by selling lights, power supplies and medical devices for the event. Nike’s and Adidas’s logos placed strategically on the participants’ apparels attracting millions of eyeballs. In these two weeks of Olympic Games we will not only see athletes compete but also companies competing for global attention and recognition.